//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Starbound // by Rytex //------------------------------// “There we go,” muttered the lavender alicorn mare, adding more energy crystals to her ship’s Energy Absorption system.  With the flip of a switch, a whirring sound, and a bright light, all of the magic crystals were disintegrated, their energy stored by the ship to be used as fuel for her journey, however far out that may be. “How’s it looking?” she spoke, raising her voice slightly as she addressed the intercom system above her. “Looking good, Princess,” came a phantom voice from somewhere on Equus below.  “Your ship appears to be fully fuelled, and all systems are operational.” “Thank you,” Twilight said, heading back to check that her emergency survival kit was still completely stocked for at least the fourteenth time.  “Everything’s looking good and ready to go.  How long until departure?” “Whenever you’re ready, Princess,” the voice said again.  “I would advise caution, though.  We haven’t explored much outside of our own solar system.  Who knows what could be out there?” “Which is exactly what I’m going to find out,” Twilight said, smiling to herself and doing her best to contain her excitement.  She was going to be the first being on all of Equus to explore unknown space! “Anything you would like to say on the subject, for the press?” asked the stallion from Mission Control in Hoofston.  “Any ideas on where you’re going to go?  They’re going to want to hear something from you before you leave.” Twilight smirked.  She had been waiting for this.  Her brother had put her up to it.  Ever since that new “tele-vision” invention from a few decades ago, a certain little title sequence just seemed completely fitting for this occasion, and by Celestia, she was going to take advantage of the opportunity. “Are they listening in right now?” Twilight asked. “I can bring some of them in.  Want me to?” “Yeah, do that.  I’m going to make sure everything’s still working.” “But you’ve already done that twenty--!  Oh, forget it.” Twilight giggled. “It’s interstellar travel.  You can never be too careful.  One mistake and I could be in pretty big trouble.” “Whatever.  I’ll bring in the press.” The intercom switched off, leaving Twilight’s ship in utter silence.  She trotted over to the transporter platform, took readings, checked the supply cache for her survival kit again, did in fact find an error with her technology scanner/3D printer and fixed it, and checked to see if the ship's scanners and defenses were up and running, which they were.  No matter where she went, as long as the ship had enough power to run, it would scan the planets for billions of miles around, not to mention search for intelligent life on any planet it found. “Princess Twilight?” came the voice again.  “They’re ready.” Twilight smiled, and trotted over to her chair in front of the controls. “Well, I’m going to have to say goodbye, then,” she said to the voice, feeling herself choke up slightly.  “I plan on doing something unforgettable when I finish up with the press.” There was silence for a moment, but then she heard a slight sniff. “I’m trying to keep it together, Twily, but the thought of not seeing my sister for at most five years is really getting to me.” Twilight felt the tears start to come, but she held them back.  She needed to be composed for the next part. “Love you, BBBFF,” she said. “Love you too, LSBFF,” he responded.  “See you when you get back.” There was silence for a very short moment, but then a cacophony of noise broke over the intercom as the paparazzi, for want of a better term, broke over the intercom. “Everypony, please, be quiet,” she said over the intercom as she started to input coordinates into her ship’s computer.  The media ponies quieted down slowly, but soon, she was met with silence once again. “This message is for everypony, and it will be the last words I speak to all of you until I return.  So please, take them down well, because I won’t be answering any questions.” She took in a deep breath to calm the butterflies in her chest that she was getting, which was moderately successful. “Space:  The final frontier,” she announced. For one moment, she waited, where she already heard laughing coming from the background as the scientists at Mission Control started to lose their composure. “These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.”  Which was actually the name of her ship, at her request.  “Its five-year mission:  to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life an new civilizations, to boldly go where nopony has gone before!” And she slammed her hoof on the “Go” button.  At once, the ship rocketed into warp, into the final frontier. Twilight was awakened from her dozing abruptly, after a violent jolt from her ship. Did she already come out of warp? It had only been a few hours at most! She had expected a few days! Were they closer to other planets than they had thought? An alarm started blaring, fully rousing her from her slight stupor. She bolted out of her bed and ran to the navigation console. The ship was indeed out of warp, but at the wrong coordinates. She continued searching for the source of the alarm, only to findthat it was not the navigation console, but the scanner. Something powerful was attacking her ship. The ship violently jolted again, and Twilight ran to the controls and started activating the ship's defense mechanisms. She glanced up and out the main window to see what it was that was attacking them and saw a strange, dark silver saucer-shaped ship flying quickly over the top of the Enterprise. It had a clear, dome-shaped cockpit, where some being was controlling it, and that being was Tartarus-bent on blowing her ship up. "WARNING! PRIMARY FUEL CHAMPERS RUPTURED! SECONDARY FUEL CHAMBERS EMPLOYED!" She was trying to power up her defense systems, but it would appear that those were the first things these beings had taken out to prevent her from retaliating. As her ship continued to take hit after hit, and as her shields continued dropping, she realized there was no winning this fight. She needed to get away as fast as possible. An explosion rocked over her ship. "WARNING! SHIELDS FAILING!" Twilight flew into her chair and started hammering key after key, attempting to punch in the coordinates for a jump to warp. Her shields were down, and if these enemies were smart, her engines would be the next target. She needed to get away before that could happen. "Come on! Come on!" she cried at the computer, almost bashing it with her hoof to make it work faster. Another explosion. Her engine integrity was falling. These enemies must have had previous encounters with other vessels. "WARNING! JUMP TO WARP NOT ADVISED! FUEL WILL BE EXHAUSTED AND RENDER THE ENTERPRISE UNABLE TO REENTER WARP!" Even in this circumstance, Twilight knew it was either this unknown fate or death. So she slammed her hoof on the warp button. At once, the stars grew longer and with a resounding roar, her ship blasted into space, leaving her unknown attacker behind. As soon as she was safely in warp, Twilight let out a sigh and wiped her forehead, taking plenty of sweat with her hoof. "Well, first interstellar journey, first alien enemy," she mused. Frankly, she couldn't help but wonder who it had been, and why it had preyed on Twilight's vessel. For that matter, how had it managed to take her out of warp? There had been no planets, no asteroids, nothing around her! The reality washed over her that maybe, ponykind was not ready for space exploration. There were beings in space with malicious intent, more powerful than they were capable of facing in space. On Equus, that would be a different story, however. She had been forced to take a jump to random coordinates that had been zeroed in on evidence of a yellow star and planets, so she could only hope that this planetary system she was heading towards contained resources she could use to power her ship. It wouldn't be long before she arrived, though. It had been a desperation move, and with her fuel capacity low, she probably wouldn't be able to travel very far before warp disengaged. Speaking of... The roar of her ship's warp drive suddenly quieted, and normal space rematerialized around her. The first thing Twilight noticed was that there was a bright yellow star directly in front of her, surrounded by several planets, including one which looked quite a bit like Equus. Water and land in equal amounts on the planet's surface gave it a very desirable quality for her to visit first. "Computer," she asked, "scan the stellar system." "SCANNING." While the computer scanned the system for an environment hospitable for life, she went and got her emergency survival kit. She was going to need it. "SCAN COMPLETE. YELLOW STAR SYSTEM, LABELLED ALPHA PRIME SYSTEM. SCAN INDICATES SIX PLANETARY SYSTEMS, 87% OF ALL PLANETS IN THIS SYSTEM CONTAIN AN ENVIRONMENT HOSPITABLE FOR EQUINE LIFE. SCAN INDICATES INTELLIGENT LIFE ON PLANETARY SYSTEM THREE, PLANET TWO." Twilight looked over to the main window, out at the several planets. All of them were in little groups of two or three, spaced further and further out from the star. This made it a similar system to the Equestrian System, which was good. The planet in question was even the one she had been hoping was hospitable. "Computer, are there any compatible fuel sources on that planet?" she asked, pulling out the backpack containing all of her survival supplies and putting it on. "SCAN INDICATES A MODERATE PRESENCE OF COAL. AN INEFFICIENT FUEL SOURCE." "But fuel is fuel," she said to herself. "Better than having nothing and being stranded out here." A thought suddenly occurred to her. Where even was she? As she started toward the teleporter, she stopped before the navigational computer and pulled up the coordinate memory logs. ERROR: CRITICAL EXTERNAL SYSTEM DAMAGE. SYSTEM MEMORY AFFECTED. REPAIRS NECESSARY TO LOG COORDINATES. It felt as if ice had gone up her spine. No logs!? That meant that not only was she stranded, she was also completely lost! Just when this trip couldn't start any worse... But she would cross that bridge when she came to it. After all, she was out here to explore. What better motivation for exploring than trying to find her way back home? But before she could start looking around other planets, she had to get her ship back in flying shape and refuel it. With that thought in mind, she trotted over to the transporter, activated it, and set to programming it to transport her to the planet's surface. As she glanced out of a viewhole at the planet below, she suddenly felt giddy, despite what had transpired only minutes ago. She was going to be the first pony to step hoof on another planet! "Well," she said happily, "a little optimism never hurt anypony. Guess I'm making Shiny proud. All at once, I get to find a new world, look for this new intelligent life, and boldly go where nopony had gone before." With the push of a button, her transporter was active. She detached her transporter tracker, which would allow her to beam back aboard the Enterprise from anywhere on the planet's surface, and pushed it onto one of her forehooves, where two straps sprouted from either side of the little black square of plastic and connected themselves, binding it around her forehoof. Satisfied that everything was in order, she pushed the activate button of the transporter and stepped on the glowing space on the floor. And with a high pitched humming noise, Twilight Sparkle was beamed to the new planet below. PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE IN